50 Book Challenge 2017 Part Three

I must finish my copy of Keeping On, Keeping On too, Southeast. I'm about half way, but have a bad case of tennis elbow and that book is seriously heavy! Maybe lifting the book caused it ... Anyway, I've decided to skip the plays, and leave them maybe for another time (or not).

6. His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet The first book I've read based on this thread. Hadn't heard about it before I read reviews on here, thank you, it's a gem. The setting felt very vividly drawn and really brought home how hard it was to make a living in the 1800s Scottish Highlands. The sense of injustice in the family circumstances will stay with me - while various parts of the plot are really grim, the visit to the factor broke my heart. Lots to think about.
Agree with recent reviews on The Outrun, really enjoyed it last year.
Started Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple as an audiobook. I think I bought this when it was on offer in the autumn, and picked it today as a big change of style from other recent reads. I'm only half an hour in so too early to judge but the setting and main character are definitely a big change from His Bloody Project and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas!

The Outrun by Amy Liptrot - brilliant
Apple Tree Yard Louise Doughty - better than TV show
Solar - Ian Mcewan

1 The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
2 Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
3 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (audible)
4 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
5 Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
6 Still Life by Louise Penny (audible)
7 A Country Road, A Tree by Jo Baker
8 The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
9 Nightwoods by Charles Frazier
10 The North Water by Ian McGuire
11 Before the Fall by Noah Hawley
12 Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.
13 The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

14 I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh. I just finished listening to this on audible. I liked it but would probably have enjoyed it more if I had read it instead of listened to it. It is set in Bristol and WaIes, about a hit and run accident. I don't trust myself to describe without spoilers so that's about all - I will leave my brilliant summary as is... It's as readable as other recently published thrillers like Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, The Kind Worth Killing etc. Regarding audible, I'm struggling with finding a style or genre that suits me. I have yet to return a book but it's rare that I really lose myself in the story - I get distracted by the voice, or the inflections sounding off, or they read it too slowly.

Anyway, I will continue the search. I have one credit burning a hole in my audible account.

Oooh thanks Wex, I'll keep an eye out for those.

1. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. I'd never read this before, but someone put it up for my book club. It's the symbolic fable of a shepherd boy who travels to the pyramids in search of treasure. And it was fucking awful. I hated it - I hated the message, I hated the writing (although that could have been the translation), I hated the 'moral'. God it was bad. I'll be very interested to see who liked it when we discuss it at book group though, as I suspect my opinion of them may change!

Something Polish perhaps? I like to read a book connected to a place when I visit. I managed to visit Edinburgh with a Rebus on the go .

Thanks wex. I'm another Rebus fan - just added the first in the series to my wish list.

Off to Poland for a few days with dh this week. Can't decide what to start before I go

FortunaMajor if you're a big Rebus fan can I recommend Adrian McKinty's Duffy series. I am rationing them to myself as they are so good. I may have mentioned them before on here.

Meant to also add to HappyFlappy hope she enjoys Nora Webster which is outstanding.

The Outrun by Amy Liptrot - VERY good. She writes beautifully. Such an interesting book and I could almost taste sea salt on my lips following her descriptions of the Orkney islands. It is a fascinating account (in non-chronological order) about growing up on a farm in Orkney to a born-again Christian mother and a bi-polar father, her desire to 'get away' and experience life in London - a whirlwind of socialising, partying, flat-sharing and relationships, descent into alcoholism, rehab and subsequent return to Orkney to remain sober. But it's so much more than just a memoir. Highly recommended.

Well the H book certainly divides opinion if nothing else! Haven't read it so can't comment - but I guess that's what this thread is all about - horses for courses etc..it would be boring if we all liked the same things

Real life (manflu, work and washing) have all taken my time up in the last week or so - so reading time has been cut a bit. I have been trying to keep up with the thread though - and my choices have been influenced by recommends and discussions here. Apologies as I've mostly forgotten who from - but a big thankyou anyway!

1. The Warden Anthony Trollope

1. Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer. Im 20% into this and have spent all afternoon googling the background and context. Amazing story that I remember happening...reading with interest.

Nora Webster - someone mentioned this one - loved it and would recommend. Thoughtful, reflective and well observed - but not action packed!

And someone else mentioned eyesight - and books vs kindle. Ive had to give up on a hard copy of Olive Kerridge - my multifocals just weren't up to the tiny print!!!

Cold grey day, baking and films and reading!
Book 17 The Trouble with Goats and Sheep. Loved this book! Devoured it in fact. Found it so evocative of my own childhood in the 70's! Definitely a keeper and one to reread.

Yes, I did see this book as the author writing about his own experience of putting together the story of H's assassination attempt. Hence the "memoir" that takes up as much (if not more) of the book as the actual story of the assassination attempt.

But re "every deliberate ambiguity as literal evidence of the author's lack of knowledge or general idiocy" - Lack of knowledge, no. General idiocy, quite possibly. Or rather, a completely pointless, piss-poor attempt at being a speshul literary snowflake. And it's not just a bit of ambiguity but deliberate confabulation and bullshit that seriously I have no interest in reading about for even my favourite authors whom I admire. I have zero fucks to give about this punk and his struggle to put a story together.

"Gabcik and his friend Valcik smile at each other - I'm sure of that, I can see them." - The book is full of crap like this.

"Kubis is dead. I wish I didn't have to write that. I would have liked to get to know him better. If only I could have saved him" - Oh FFS, just shut up!

"I am sure they are sure that the game is up" - DD (11) writes better than this.

""He fires, and nothing happens. I can't resist cheap literary effects. Nothing happens." - Pages and pages of this crap!

"I'm drivelling, aren't I?" >> You see, he agrees with me

It sounds like you have taken it completely at face value, confusing the narrator with the author, and taking every deliberate ambiguity as literal evidence of the author's lack of knowledge or general idiocy. I agree it would be very difficult to enjoy it coming at it from that angle. It is only a book - no one has to run away from it...just stop reading it Worth a try though, imo, and I'll leave it there

It's not non-fiction and it's not a memoir. It's a fictionalised account of a real-life event in which the writer is deliberately playing with ideas about how stories (REAL stories) might/can/ultimately can't really be told by people who weren't there (or even if they were there, still only tell their own version of it).

"The whole point of it is that it's describing a journey of thinking things through, getting it confused, trying to decide what to tell and what not to tell, trying to decide if the teller is able to tell it at all etc."

I agree. All in a whiny, man-child, intellectually dishonest manner - going on about just how very much he knows but also makes up lots of stuff and does it matter, does it not, oh and his girlfriend hates him (understandably) et cetera as nauseam.

To each their own and all that, but this most certainly is not a non-fiction book as someone said earlier. It is a really badly written memoir of a self-important, whiny idiot who supposedly knows everything there is to know about this moment in history but fabricates and confabulates the story, apparently just because he can.

I wish I had known that earlier so that I wouldn't bother to read it. So, if you find that sort of thing charming and original, HHhH might be for you. If not, run (you are welcome ).

Finished book 9.

Will get my list over in a bit but for now . . .

1. The Rosie Project Graeme Simsion

I did enjoy the burgeoning relationship between Don and Rosie and actually cried at one point (blame the pregnancy hormones - I cried at His Bloody Project as well)

Enjoyable and easy going.

Agree that taking bits of HHhH out of context isn't terribly helpful. The whole point of it is that it's describing a journey of thinking things through, getting it confused, trying to decide what to tell and what not to tell, trying to decide if the teller is able to tell it at all etc.

I think even the very best books could be carefully segmented and made to sound crap - throwing out a few lines of Mr Collins with no context would make Pride and Prejudice sound utter nonsense, for example.

Another yes vote to HHhH - I wouldn't rave about it as some do, but I thought it was definitely worth reading. I generally avoid WW2 set books just because I've read so very many over my lifetime but I thought it made valid points about the way much non-fiction is written. For example, I was much more interested in the subject matter of Behind the Beautiful Forevers which I read around the same time, but was quite uncomfortable with the complete non-presence of the author as observer within the book.

I read HHhH a few years ago and I really enjoyed it. It's non-fiction but written in a completely different manner. I thought the suspense was well built, and the story was gripping.

I don't have a creative bone in my body, so found the insight into his writing process fascinating having never read anything like it. I think it would be a shame for people to dismiss it because of someone else's opinion. Other then on here I don't know anyone who's disliked it.

Here's the despicable weasel talking about it, he's lovely!

m.youtube.com/watch?v=MoLC_52hSlM

Also thanks to this, ahem, debate I discovered he has a new book out in May, so very excited about that. I fell about laughing when I saw the title, thinking of cote's reaction - It's called The 7th Function of Language and it's a thriller about...Roland Barthes Look away now, my friend, it's about to get even more French

despicable weasel

FWIW I think actually more people liked HHhH on here than hated it last year (show of hands? Help me out here!) so it's a shame if people are put off giving it a try, because the "utter nonsense" is actually quite thoughtful, moving and original in context. He cares about the story and is honest about the difficulties of getting it right and doing justice to the real people involved. And it really was a page turner toward the end, I wanted to know how it all turned out for the two resistance guys, the impact on the war as a whole, and found the level of detail fascinating.

Anyway, we both liked The Revenant

I saw a film called Operation Anthropoid out as well everysong. Wonder how they'll do it.

Flowers in the Attic- had a whole spell of reading Virginia Andrews when I was about 14. Thought they were amazing at the time. But they served their purpose and kept me reading, a bit of a bridge to other things. Try to apply the same philosophy about reading to my children now: I don't mind what rubbish they read (within reason !) as long as they read!